Murdoch-owned News UK to launch Talk TV network

The Rupert Murdoch-owned media company News UK has announced it will launch a new TV channel in early 2022.

TalkTV will be streamed live and made available via on-demand platforms.

The title of the new network brings it into line with some of the company's existing speech radio stations, talkRADIO and talkSPORT.

News UK said the new station would feature presenting talent from its existing brands, which also include Virgin Radio and Times Radio.

Chris Evans, Graham Norton, Julia Hartley-Brewer, Trisha Goddard, John Pienaar, Rob Rinder and the newly-hired Jeremy Kyle are among the presenters across News UK's existing networks.

The company said there would also be appearances from journalists employed by News UK's newspapers, The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times.

In a press release, News UK added the channel would feature "proper hourly news bulletins, sports and entertainment shows as well as current affairs, debate, opinion and documentaries".

However, the company also confirmed it would hire "some exceptional new talent" to join its schedule of prime time programming for the evenings.

It has been widely speculated that former Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan could join the project.

On Thursday morning, Morgan tweeted the same ticking clock gif he has previously posted when on the verge of announcing a big piece of news.

Earlier this week, Morgan posed for photographs with Evans at an event hosted by The Sun.

Speaking about TalkTV, Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News UK, said: "We are committed to providing choice for television and streaming viewers and bringing the best of our journalism to the screen. Taking advantage of modern technology, we can produce high quality shows at low cost."

News UK said it had invested in new TV studios in its existing headquarters in London Bridge.